Rain
by greekrose
Summary: Reid receives a phone call that changes everything.
1. eternal motion

Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds, it characters or its plots. I am not making any money with this work of fanfiction.

**So I was going to wait a little longer to post this chapter, but…. JJ is coming back! For those of you who haven't heard AJ will be returning to criminal minds. Her character JJ will guest star in the final episode of season six and then be returning for season 7 and 8 (if there is a season 8)… So although this doesn't really have anything to do with JJ it is still my celebration. Enjoy!**

There are days that start gloriously. The days that you wake to the light of a newly risen sun streaming through your window, the days where you wake and the tedious monotony of your life doesn't seem to exist, the days when a perfect silent peace seems to still the air around you preserving the perfect moment just long enough for you to appreciate it.

But then there are the days that you wake with a sinking feeling in your gut. The days when the sun seem shaded even if there are no clouds in the sky, the days when you wish for rain just so your angst might have company. This was one of those days.

When Spencer Reid woke that Tuesday morning, the air felt different. The alarm, that woke him every morning to tell him it was time to go to his real home and see his real family, for the first time ever was greeted with dread. His footsteps sounded heavy and his coffee tasted bitter, yet his mind did not allow for gut feelings. The brilliant mind of Spencer Reid only listened to what fact dictated and fact told him that this morning was just like any other.

The subway ride to work proved to be uneventful as always, further proof for his analytical mind that this day was just like another, unless you counted the fact that the train was 2.3 seconds earlier than yesterday and Reid was pretty sure no one did. Reid had many a time been offered rides to work by his coworkers who lived close, but he always declined. He found the subway peaceful; he liked the sound of metal on metal slowly rolling beneath him, he liked that at this time in the morning the few passengers were regulars and had taken to sharing kind smiles on even the dreariest of days. Leaning back in his seat he started to sympathise with the train - it never stopped, never actually reached its destination but none the less had to watch as everyone around it reached theirs. He felt like that sometimes; though his body remained still his mind was ever moving, forever locked in the deadly dance of knowledge and curiosity. He awoke from his thoughts just in time to see his stop approaching. As he watched, the speck of light at the end of the tunnel grew into a room of tile and concrete. Before leaving he said his silent goodbye to the train, promising to return. Stepping off his understanding steel friend, the uneasiness returned and emerging from the damp and artificially lit underworld of the city did nothing to ease this.

During the walk to Quantico, Reid managed to push his unnamed worried aside. He thought instead of new cases and old paper work that faced him through those familiar glass doors. By the time he had made it past security the anxiety that had seemingly seeped into his mind during his sleep had been purposefully and sufficiently forgotten. The elevator carried him swiftly to his floor, then closed behind him already off to serve a new customer, Reid already forgotten. The bull pen as always was a flurry of activity; people walked as quickly as they dared with stack upon stack of files and paper that teetered dangerously in their arms. Reid, used to this whirlwind of activity, had no troubles skilfully weaving through it to his desk where his comfortable chair welcomed him ever so graciously back. The stack of paper work on his desk was not so kind. With a sigh he started on his work. His last thought, before he had become completely lost in words that sped by him at inhuman speed, was that if one of these days he should tell Morgan and Emily he knew about the extra paper work that that they thought they so stealthily placed in his pile.

The rest of the BAU team slowly filed in in the passing hour, various coffees and muffins in hand. A silent hope shared between them all was that they could have a case free day so that they might be able to catch up on their ever growing piles of paper work, or as Morgan so eloquently called them 'bureaucratic piles of crap'. The day slowly rolled on; every time a phone rang those around it were caught in a moment of dreadful anxiety that their relaxing day had come to a close, yet a call summoning them away from their all too often vacant desks never came. It was true however that whilst the call they had all been dreading never came, it was replaced by a very different call.

When Reid's phone rang that day, the unnamed dread that had been skittering around the edges of his nerves finally found its cause.

**I hope you liked it!**


	2. Alone

Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds, its characters, or its plot lines. I am not making any money with this work of fanfiction.

**SORRY! I know it's been a while but I promise to update again as quickly as I can. Again another thank you to my wonderful Beta You Rock! I hope you all enjoy this chapter.**

Spencer Reid was totally and unequivocally unaware. Unaware of the woman on the other end of the phone calling his name, unaware that he was still holding the phone in his shaking hand, unaware that he was rushing out of the bull pen, unaware that Morgan and Prentiss were following him and calling his name. It was rare that Spencer Reid did anything without thinking about it; in fact you could say he put overzealous thought into every task he did no matter how small. But as he walked to the elevator all he could think of was the phone call he had received mere minutes ago, just a few minutes ago when his world was still in one piece.

"Spencer Reid?"

The tentative voice on the other side of the phone set off warning bells right away. The hope in her voice was not the happy sort. It was as if she was hoping this was not Spencer Reid, so that she would not have to be the bearer of such solemn news. "Yes, may I ask whose calling?" he replied, while wishing at the moment that he wasn't a profiler. Someone who was not trained to notice the subtle changes in a person's attitude, posture, or even tone of voice might have missed the small steadying intake of breath on the other end of the phone.

"Mr. Reid, my name is Lucille Fareright, I work as a nurse at Bennington Sanatorium." At the words Bennington Sanatorium, his heart stopped. Though he tried to deny it, deep down he knew the phone call he had dreaded since he turned eighteen had come. It was the phone call he had been dreading all morning without realizing it. All he could give in reply was a noncommittal mumble; his mind was otherwise occupied with the paralysing anxiety of what could come next.

"Mr. Reid, I am very sorry but your mother passed away last night…" the woman continued on with what she considered to be sensitive and professional words before she realized the man on the other side of the phone mind was much further away than the 2366 miles between Las Vegas and Virginia.

Morgan and Emily had not paid much attention to the phone call Reid had received at first; it was not unusual for one of them to get a call at their desk. In fact, sometimes, Garcia would call them from her lair when she just wanted to chat. What alerted Morgan to the fact that the call was less than ordinary was the uncanny silence radiating from the young genius. He looked up from the white sheet of meaningless protocol in time to see Reid rushing from the bull pen. What startled him the most however was that the young man was far paler than the now forgotten sheet on his desk. He didn't even seem to register Morgan and Emily calling after him as he moved quickly toward the elevator. The two agents trailing their obviously distressed friend watched in dismay as the elevator door seemed to close with a newfound swiftness just to spite them.

"I'll go." Morgan told Emily after the two shared a brief moment uncertainty; their unspoken plan had only extended as far as the elevator doors.

"Let me know if you need me." She told him, he eyes alight with worry and clearly portraying her real message '_call me if it's bad'_. With a quick nod, Morgan headed for the stairs. They were only on the fourth floor and he was far too impatient to wait for the elevator when his best friend was walking around seemingly aimlessly and distraught.

It didn't take Morgan long to find Reid; it had been a simple task of asking the security guard on the main floor id he had seem his friend pass and then sprinting out the front doors when he had received an affirmative nod. Outside he simply profiled Reid, knowing that the younger man liked solitude when he was upset so he turned around the side of the building which was the most secluded in search of his friend.

On the elevator ride down Reid had realized he wanted nothing more than to be alone, as he shared breathing space with two large agents. He had rushed from the small space as quickly as he could without outright sprinting once the reflective doors slid open. He had punched open the front doors of this one of many buildings in Quantico and taken a deep breath of the fresh air. The deep seated sorrow festering in his gut would not be vanquished so easily though. Seeking solitude, he quickly rounded the building to an area he often came to when he was upset or went to when he just wanted to think without all the noise. Everything felt so surreal, as if it hadn't actually happened; as if as long as he denied the reality of the present world, his mother would not truly be dead. His solitude only lasted for a moment however. All too soon he heard the tell-tale sound of shoe on gravel. Keeping his head down, hoping beyond hope that this person had just happened upon him by chance while seeking a little peace and quiet of their own, he didn't realize that the man approaching him was his best friend until Morgan cautiously called out to him.

"Kid?"

That one word was all it took. He could no longer pretend this wasn't real. Morgan's concerned voice had shattered the false reality around him. Still not looking up, Reid choked on a sob before he broke down completely. Not a second later he felt a pair of warm arms wrap him protectively in a hug.

"She's gone."

**In case you can't tell I'm a sucker for mushy moments.**


	3. Stamps

Disclaimer: I do not own criminal minds, its characters, or its plot lines. I am making no money with this work of fanfiction.

**SO SO SORRY! I know this took a really long time; I have just been really busy. But anyways I hope you enjoy it:D**

The two men didn't notice as it grew colder. They merely sat shoulder to shoulder, the warmth of their barely touching skin contrasting with the cool stone below them. To one of them, that stone seemed to be the only absolute thing in his life. The shadows grew taller around them with the now declining sun, the creeping darkness intruding upon their quiet vigil telling them it was time to go. But as they sat there neither was willing to be the first to rise. Neither man wanted to face the reality of what existed beyond the two of them there and then; for the cold hard ground seemed at the moment to have far too much in common with the world.

Morgan had never been one to sit in silence, but lack of sound was infinitely better than his best friend's anguished sobs. Luckily they had not lasted long. They had seemingly spilled out over Reid's carefully constructed wall of self-preservation but it had not taken long for the wall to be reconstructed. Once the crushing weight of the loss of his mother had waned enough for the younger man to be aware of anything other than the paralyzing pain from his heart, he quickly disentangled himself from Morgan's arms in which he had been surprised to find himself tenderly wrapped. Sliding to the ground and wiping the last remnants of tears from underneath his expressive hazel eyes, he had become silent and remained that way for some time. Morgan had to fight the urge to ask his friend if he was alright. He knew the young genius well enough by now to know that he would much rather be left to the confines of his own mind to think things through for himself. Not to mention that if he did dare open his mouth and try to engage his grieving friend he would have no idea what to say. Yes, he had lost his father, but he still had his mother and sisters. What do you say to someone who just lost the only family they had?

"I have 52 stamps." Reid voice was quiet but missing it would be impossible when they were surrounded only by silence.

"What?" Morgan had no idea what Reid was talking about; he had expected the first thing to come out of his mouth to be something along the lines of 'I can't believe she's gone', but then again trying to anticipate Reid's thoughts was like trying to count the beat of a humming birds wings with your eyes closed.

"I have 52 stamps left, my mom is..." he paused at his own use of present tense. He was agonizingly aware that he could no longer use it when speaking of his mother, his sorrowful eyes breaking contact with Morgan's compassionate ones and trailing to the ground, "was the only person I ever wrote to." Reid knew that the logical thing to do would be to keep them, for eventually he would need to send a letter, but the thought of opening his desk drawer and seeing those stamps now seemed intolerably painful. The fact that he had purchased so many stamps had been a sign of his optimistic belief that he would be writing those daily letters for a long time; now they just seemed to be a cruel reminder that nothing in his life could be depended on to stick around.

Morgan had no reply other than a firm squeeze of Reid's shoulder before pulling himself off the ground and offering Reid his hand. There was much more to the gesture, however, as Morgan hoisted Reid off the cold ground they had been occupying; his outstretched hand was a silent message of camaraderie. Morgan wouldn't let Reid go through this alone. The simple gesture was not lost on the younger man; it reminded him of an integral fact that he had been hiding in his misery. The BAU was his family too and he was not alone. They stood for a moment in silence before they turned and walked back to reality together.

**Hope you enjoyed it and thank you to my awesome beta for encouraging me and making my stories legible.**

Pantherlily- Thanks, sorry it took so long but there will be more soon.

Lolyncut- Oh I would never do that, I don't have a problem with minor character death but I could never kill off my Reid

RavenParadox-Ok like WOW, thank you so much! And don't worry I don't let lack of reviews deter me, as much as I love reviews I still write simply because it's something I enjoy.

Lpearson-I won't stop, sorry it took so long. Seriously though I would never just abandon a story part way through. And you're very welcome, thank you for the review.

Hplover233-Thank you! And I will most definitely keep updating, I know this took a while but the next update will be much sooner.

Sue1313- I quite agree, this story will be heavy on Morgan Reid friendship.

Lightinshadow- as usual your reviews make me smile like an idiot, thank you so much! I'm so glad you're still enjoying my stories. I'm sorry this took so long though, I was super busy and experiencing mild writers block, but I'm over it now so another update will be soon.

Maraunder-in-disguise- lol there kind of my greatest weakness, thanks again!

Booknookgurl-thank you and I'm very glad, there will be more soon as well.

-Thank you so much! The next chapter will contain the team and their reactions.

Key03- thank you, I'm sorry it took so long but the next update will be soon.


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